


‘Cause What You Want Is What I Want (Sincerity)

by all_we_see_is_sky



Series: The Adventures of Lexi Pearce (And Her Superdads) [1]
Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Ben Mitchell is Best Dad, Callum is just trying his hardest, Canon Divergence, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Lexi Pearce being Sassy, M/M, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 10:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19789102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/all_we_see_is_sky/pseuds/all_we_see_is_sky
Summary: About two months into their relationship, or at least two months of them being public, the pair were sat in the cafe over breakfast, Ben’s thumb rubbing slow circles into the back of Callum’s hand. “It’s about time you met, Lexi, yeah?”Aka, Lexi gives Callum the shovel talk.





	‘Cause What You Want Is What I Want (Sincerity)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This post was inspired by the lovely Soph (@dingletragedy on tumblr) who let me use her head canons as a prompt, here’s the post!  
> https://dingletragedy.tumblr.com/post/186235364812/please-do-head-canons-with-ballum-and-lexi
> 
> also title taken from Sanctuary by Joji

Things had never really been smooth sailing for Ben and Callum and Callum coming out was no different. Whitney had been hurt and confused at first and she had a right to be, she was never going to take the news of her fiancé being gay laying down. After a little bit of explaining on Callum’s part, about his fears, the homophobia from his father, his brother and most importantly himself that had stopped him from feeling able to come out, Whitney had understood and the three of them were rather civilised. It wasn’t as though Whitney would be inviting her ex-fiancé and his boyfriend over for tea anytime soon, but they could walk past each other and give a small smile and a nod. All in all, things between them could’ve worked out worse. 

Fairly soon after Callum had opened up, Kathy had been eager for Ben to invite Callum over. She had spent the past few months begging Ben to settle down, to bring at least one man home for dinner and the news of Ben having a boyfriend had made her ecstatic. Unable to stand his mother’s begging for long, Callum had joined Ben and Kathy for a nice meal out in town. Ever the gentleman, Callum had been overly polite and kind and Ben found himself scoffing at the man’s behaviour more than once, it was fair to say that Kathy had fallen in love with Callum almost instantly. 

About two months into their relationship, or at least two months of them being public, the pair were sat in the cafe over breakfast, Ben’s thumb rubbing slow circles into the back of Callum’s hand. “It’s about time you met, Lexi, yeah?” Ben asked, keeping his voice light in hopes that the request wouldn’t scare Callum too much, he knew that trying to be a second dad to Lexi was a prospect that scared him quite a bit. 

Callum bit his lip slightly and looked up from his plate before responding. “I met her already, ain’t I? We went to the park together couple days ago,” the reply earned an eye roll from Ben. 

“Not properly, you ain’t. C’mon Loverboy, she’ll adore you,” Lexi was such a big part of Ben’s life that he couldn’t imagine keeping her separate from Callum anymore, who was slowly beginning to mean just as much to Ben. “She’s back at home if you want to go now?” Ben offered, leaving it on the table for Callum to decide but letting him know how much he wanted it to happen. Much to Callum’s dismay, when he had broke things off with Whitney, she had moved back into the pub and allowed Callum his space at the flat. That meant that the two men still had different living spaces even if Ben did spend most of his time over at Callum’s, away from prying eyes. 

It looked as though Callum was thinking before he gave a hesitant nod. “Yeah, yeah okay,” he agreed, voice timid and gentle. He didn’t seem thrilled at the idea of meeting Ben’s daughter nor did he seem completely nonplussed by the idea, it seemed there was just a general anxiety rolling through his body at the thought of it. 

Neither man had ever been in love with the act of PDA, both of them preferring to keep their affection private and meaningful, however it felt nice to be able to walk through the square and back to Ben’s hand in hand. For Callum it was a sense of relief, like the weight of the world had been removed from his shoulders and he was finally able to be himself, whilst for Ben it was a sort of ‘fuck you’ to his father, a show that he could be happy with whoever the hell he wanted to and it was nobody else’s business. 

When they got back to the often too crowded household, after a stop at the Minute Mart so Callum could buy Lexi a bag of sweets despite Ben’s complaints, Lexi was sat on on the couch with her stuffed rabbit, Fluffy, in her lap as she watched some mindless cartoon that Ben had seen a countless amount of times before. “Lex? Come away from the tv for a sec, got something important to tell you,” Ben tried, knowing full well she was going to put up a struggle because how dare he interrupt her favourite tv show. 

“After, daddy. I want to see the end,” Lexi explained, not even glancing over at her dad who was stood by the kitchen table, completely unaware of Callum’s presence. Callum couldn’t help but laugh slightly, aiming it down at his feet, he still felt Ben’s slight glare before he tried talking to his daughter again. 

“Pause it or something, Lexi. Callum and I have some really exciting news, it won’t take long,” Ben swore. Ben wasn’t one to take no for an answer, and he could admit that he had sometimes been a bit of a bad father in the past, had snapped and demanded whenever she would refuse at first but over time he learnt to be patient. Controlling kids was impossible, they managed life in their own way and at their own pace and that was something Ben was beginning to deal with and handle pretty well. Intrigued by Ben’s words, Lexi took Fluffy by the hand and walked over to the pair of them, and Ben felt a wave of relief rush through him over the fact he hadn’t had to beg her in front of Callum. Ben knelt down to be her height and took her free hand into his. “You remember going to the park with me and Callum?” Ben spoke soft, almost like speaking to a feral animal. He wasn’t sure how she was going to react to the news, if she would even properly understand. 

“Yeah. He pushed me on the swings and he made me go the highest ever, more higher than you,” her grin up at Callum was toothy, having earned £5 from the tooth fairy for losing two of her teeth in one go. Ben laughed slightly, glad she seemed to like Callum. 

“Callum’s nice isn’t he?” She nodded. “Callum’s going to be around a lot more now, that’s because he’s daddy’s new boyfriend. I like him a lot, and we’re going to have lots of fun together aren’t we?” Ben asked her, putting as much excitement into his voice as he could manage. Lexi’s whole demeanour slipped within a couple of seconds and she went from smiling up at Callum to glaring slightly, not saying a word as she turned to go and finish her tv show, holding Fluffy tight to her chest. Ben looked up at Callum from where he was still crouched on the floor. The only response he had to Callum’s furrowed eyebrow was a slight shrug. “I’m sure she’s just, getting used to the idea,” Ben whispered once he stood again, gesturing to the table for Callum to sit. “I’ll make us tea,” it was an excuse to be without Callum to process what the hell had just happened. He had never seen his daughter glare at anybody like that except for Lola or himself when they told her to do something. Why did she suddenly have a vendetta against Callum?

Once he returned to the dining area of the house, Callum was sat at one end of the table with Lexi on the other, as far away as possible, scribbling furiously into her colouring in book as her tongue poked out the side of the mouth. “Go easy, babe. What did that giraffe ever do to you?” That didn’t warrant a response. “Bunch up will you? You’re in my seat,” Ben huffed at Callum who hesitantly followed Ben’s request, moving up a seat and therefore closer to Lexi. Callum hadn’t been in Ben’s seat, of course, Ben was just desperate to see Lexi engaging in some sort of activity with Callum. Her ignorance hadn’t been something Ben was expecting at all, not when she was usually a ray of sunshine with everybody else. Both Callum and Lexi were sweet, Ben thought they would bounce well off each other. Ben couldn’t help but roll his eyes and mouth ‘talk to her’ when Callum gave him a look like he was in over his head, like he had no idea what to do next. 

“Uh- Hey Lexi?” No reply. “I was thinking later tonight we could watch a movie? How about The Little Mermaid? Me, you and daddy?” Callum offered, he sounded so hopeful and it broke Ben’s heart slightly when his face dropped at Lexi’s straight-to-the-point response. 

“I seen that last year. I’m not a baby,” she huffed and Ben reached quickly for Callum’s hand, giving it a slight squeeze to let him know that her behaviour wasn’t his fault in the slightest. Watching Callum try so hard and fall flat on his face because Lexi was in some sort of strop was awful to watch. 

“Lexi. You don’t speak to people that way,” Ben chastised, it didn’t seem to get through and she opted to completely ignore him, going back to colouring in her purple giraffe. Callum looked so put out. 

“How about a different movie then?” Callum practically begged, reaching into the pocket of his jacket to pull out the bag of sweets he had bought her. “I bought you these too. You can eat them now if you like, or wait and have them with the movie later on?” Lexi didn’t even glance up from her colouring book to look at the sweets and Ben felt as hopeless as Callum looked. Not even an hour ago she had agreed that Callum was nice, and that she had enjoyed her time at the park with him. Now that he had been introduced as her daddy’s new boyfriend she was acting all cut off and harsh. It didn’t make sense. 

“Keep trying to get through to her. I’m going to go order us some food,” Ben told Callum and pressed a kiss to his head before moving to the kitchen, clicking the door shut behind him so he wouldn’t have to listen to the desperation that riddled Callum’s voice. He felt for the man. He had been so scared of coming here in the first place and now Lexi was doing nothing to ease the poor man’s nerves. Ben was dreading finding out what was going on next door. 

Ben was still in the kitchen when Lexi placed her purple crayon down and folded her arms over her chest, finally looking up at Callum properly, who was staring back as though she was a lion and he was the stag. “I don’t want you to hurt my daddy. Everybody always hurts him all of the time and he gets sad even though he pretends he doesn’t. I don’t want my daddy to be sad or hurt. I don’t like it when daddy is sad,” Lexi blurted out without warning. She was trying to keep a tough composure, her eyes remaining pinned onto Callum’s, cold and steely but her bottom lip wobbling betrayed her. Callum let out a long breath. 

“Lexi. I’m not going to hurt your daddy, I like him quite a lot, and I don’t like it when he’s sad either. I promise I won’t hurt him and I’ll try to make him happy all of the time,” Callum swore, a feeling of ease washing over him when Lexi softened and she held up her little fist, pinky extended. 

“Pinky promise?” She had asked, still determined but a lot less angry. 

It was easy for Callum to wrap his pinky around the six year olds and squeeze only slightly. “Pinky promise,” at that, she clambered out of her seat and threw herself at Callum, so much so that he had to react fast and wrap both arms around the small girl in order to stop her from banging her head on the seat next to him. Lexi stayed sat on Callum’s lap hugging him and whispering quiet thank yous and babbling about loving her dad for what felt like a lifetime before removing her arms from around his neck. Even though they were no longer in the tight embrace, Lexi stayed seated on Callum, opened her bag of sweets, dragged her crayons and colouring book closer and began chatting away about animals and saying a bunch of long words that he was fairly certain no six year old should know. 

The sight that Ben returned to hadn’t been a one he was expecting, his daughter perched on his boyfriend’s lap with him responding to her nonsensical babble about the animals on her colouring book, but it wasn’t an unwelcome sight in the slightest, quite the opposite. Ben was so overjoyed with the situation, he didn’t even bother taking Lexi’s sweets from her because she wasn’t allowed them before dinner. It gave him hope for the future, a tiny part of Ben lighting up with the excitement of being a proper little family. Ben couldn’t wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!! I’m considering making this a series and using the rest of the head canons for each chapter if it’s something you guys would be interested in?
> 
> As always, my tumblr is @imstillabiggay so feel free to talk to me on there or send me asks or prompts :))).
> 
> Have a nice day!


End file.
